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TRACT  NO.  XCl 


THE  ARTICLES  OF  RELIGION  FROM  AN 
AMERICAN  POINT  OF  VIEW 


BY 

The  Rev.  WILLIAM  REED  HUNTINGTON,  D.D. 

Rector  of  Grace  Church,  New  York 


{^Reprinted  from  The  Hibbbrt  }OTi'&xihX,  for  July,  1907'] 


NEW  YORK 

A.   G.    SHERWOOD   &   CO. 

1907 


TRACT   NO.  XCI 

During  the  sixty  and  six  years  that 
have  elapsed  since  1841,  the  meteorite 
known  in  ecclesiastical  history  as  Tract 
No.  XC.  has  had  ample  time  to  cool. 
Such  was  the  heat  of  friction  developed 
by  the  stone's  passage  through  the  An- 
glican atmosphere,  so  violent  was  the  ex- 
plosion caused  by  its  impact  upon  the 
hard  surface  of  an  evangelical  England, 
that,  for  the  time  being,  a  fair  appraisal 
of  values  was  impossible.  Any  attempt 
to  lift  and  weigh  the  incandescent  mass 
would  have  been  futile.  But  patience 
has  now  had  her  perfect  work,  relative 
temperatures  have  quietly  adjusted  them- 
selves, and  it  is  open  to  sober-minded 
critics  to  subject  Tract  XC.  to  libration 
and  analysis;  hence  Tract  No.  XCI.,  or 
The  Same  Subject  Continued. 

Cardinal  Newman  has  left  on  record  in 
the  Apologia  a  very  full  and  frank  state- 
ment of  his  reasons  for  making  the  Arti- 
cles of  Religion  the  subject   of  a  Tract. 


He  had  been  gradually  leading  his  dis- 
ciples on,  through  a  sort  of  enchanted 
forest,  beautiful  for  leafage  and  under- 
growth, though  singularly  deficient  in 
guide-posts,  until  some  of  them,  as  he 
could  not  fail  to  discern,  were  on  the  point 
of  asking  him  awkward  questions.  On 
the  lips  of  more  than  one  of  the  devotees 
there  trembled  the  anxious  interrogatory, 
"  Master,  whither?" 

"  From  the  time  that  I  had  entered  upon  the  duties  of 
Public  Tutor  of  my  College,"  Newman  writes,  "when 
my  doctrinal  views  were  very  different  from  what  they 
were  in  1841,  I  had  meditated  a  comment  upon  the 
Articles.  Then,  when  the  Movement  was  in  its  swing, 
friends  had  said  to  me,  'What  will  you  make  of  the 
Articles  ? '  but  I  did  not  share  the  apprehension  which 
their  question  implied.  ...  I  had  been  enjoined,  I 
think  by  my  Bishop,  to  keep  these  men  straight,  and  I 
wished  so  to  do,  but  their  tangible  difficulty  was  sub- 
scription to  the  Articles,  and  thus  the  question  of  the 
Articles  came  before  me.  It  was  thrown  in  our  teeth, — 
'  How  can  you  manage  to  sign  the  Articles  ?  they  are 
directed  against  Rome.'  'Against  Rome?'  I  made 
answer,  '  What  do  you  mean  by  Rome  ? '  and  I  pro- 
ceeded to  make  distinctions  of  which  I  shall  now  give  an 
account." 

There  follow  some  eight  pages  of  ex- 
planation, of  a  highly  interesting  character. 
With  Newman's  dialectic  method  in  hand- 
ling  the  question  of    subscription,  those 


who  have  read  Tract  XC.  are  familiar. 
His  main  thesis  is  that  the  Articles  do  not 
oppose  Catholic  teaching,  that  they  only 
slightly  oppose  Roman  dogma,  and  that,  in 
so  far  as  they  antagonise  Rome  at  all,  it 
is  mainly  with  a  view  to  disowning  certain 
superstitions  which  are  not  necessarily  a 
part  of  the  system  with  which,  in  the 
Protestant  mind,  they  are  commonly  asso- 
ciated. In  other  words,  Newman  held 
that  the  protest  of  the  English  Reformers 
had  been  directed  not  so  much  against  the 
barque  of  Peter  as  against  a  lot  of  barnacles 
encrusted  upon  the  submerged  portion  of 
her  hull. 

This  theory  of  the  true  bearing  of  the 
Articles  was  not  wholly  new ;  what  made 
it  startling  in  1841  was  the  fact  of  its 
having  received,  for  the  first  time,  the 
imprunatur  of  an  Anglican  divine.  As  far 
back  as  in  1633,  one  Abraham  Davenport, 
a  Franciscan  Father,  known  in  religion  as 
Sancta  Clara,  had  suggested  that  at  least 
some  of  the  English  Articles  might  be 
dealt  with  in  the  fashion  which  Newman, 
more  than  two  hundred  years  later,  recom- 
mended.    Eighteen  of  the  famous  Thirty- 


nine  Davenport  declared  to  be  thoroughly 
orthodox  from  the  Roman  point  of  view, 
two  he  regarded  as  mere  logomachies, 
while,  as  to  the  remaining  nineteen,  he 
held  that,  even  if  they  were  not  "  ambitious 
of  a  Catholic  interpretation,"  they  were, 
to  use  the  phrase  of  the  keen  analyst  who 
was  to  come  after,  ''patient"  of  such  a 
reading.  But  Sancta  Clara,  as  has  been 
noted,  was  a  Franciscan ;  he  looked  at  the 
question  from  the  other  side  of  the  stream 
from  that  on  which  the  English  theologians 
were  supposed  to  stand  ;  his  advances  met 
with  no  very  cordial  reception,  and  the 
Articles  continued  to  be  regarded  by  suc- 
cessive generations  of  educated  clergy  and 
faithful  laity  as  the  nation's  protest  against 
Rome.  Sancta  Clara  and  his  devices  had 
long  been  lost  out  of  mind  when  Newman 
launched  the  torpedo  destined  to  blow  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  in  their  supposed 
character  of  a  reasoned  Protestant  eirenic, 
to  shivers. 

For  really  that  is  what  has  happened, 
though  the  metaphor  may  seem  to  some  a 
little  violent.  A  system  which  has  failed 
to  serve  the  purpose  it  was  originally  con- 


trived  to  answer,  ma}^  fairly  enough  be 
said  to  have  been  shivered  by  the  agent 
which  has  demonstrated  the  failure. 

And  what  was  the  purpose  for  which 
the  Tliirt3^-nine  Articles  were  originally 
set  forth  ?  The  ofHcial  documents  of  the 
sixteenth  centur}'  supply  us  with  a  per- 
fectly clear  answer  to  the  question.  They 
were  published  as  having  been  agreed 
upon  "  by  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of 
both  Provinces  and  the  whole  clergy,  in 
the  Convocation  holden  at  London  in  the 
year  of  Our  Lord  1542,  for  the  avoiding 
of  the  diversities  of  opinions  and  for  the 
establishing  of  consent  touching  true  re- 
ligion." Have  the  Articles,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  accomplished  these  salutary  ends  ? 
Has  there  been  any  real  avoidance  of  **  di- 
versities of  opinions"?  Has  there  been 
any  genuine  establishing  of  consent  ?  Not 
certainly  since  1841,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  case  in  earlier  years.  One  may, 
to  be  sure,  buy  at  the  theological  book 
shops  either  Forbes  on  the  Thirt^^-nine 
Articles,  or  Browne;  but  if  he  attempts  to 
make  the  Bishop  of  Brechin  keep  step  with 
the  Bishop  of   Winchester,  he  wall  meet 


with  onh'  indifferent  success.  Can  two 
walk  together  except  they  be  agreed  ?  The 
prophet  Amos  thought  not. 

I  repeat,  then,  that  in  so  far  as  the  ac- 
complishment of  their  avowed  purpose  is 
concerned,  the  Thirt3'-nine  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England  have  been  and  are  an 
open  failure.  The}^  attempted  the  estab- 
lishing of  a  common  standard  of  religious 
belief  with  respect  to  a  multitude  of  details, 
and  it  sinipl}^  could  not  be  done, — could 
not  be  done  to  last.  English  Christianity 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  John  Henry 
Newman  for  having  made  this  point  clear. 
His  logic  metamorphosed  what  had  been, 
for  so  many  years,  hypocritically  denomi- 
nated ^'Articles  of  peace,"  into  unmistaka- 
ble articles  of  war.  Ever  since  his  day  the 
cry  has  been  concerning  them,  "  Not  peace, 
but  a  sword."  ''How  many  sacraments 
hath  Christ  ordained  in  his  Church?" 
"  Two,"  answers  the  ingenuous  child,  fresh 
from  his  Catechism.  "Oh,  no;"  inter- 
rupts the  Anglo-Catholic,  backed,  as  he 
now  contends,  b}'-  Article  twenty-five;  "Oh, 
no ;  seven,  m}^  good  child ;  only  3-ou  must 
be  careful  not  to  call  them  sacraments  of 


the  Gospel."  This  is  a  fair  sample  of  what 
Tract  XC.  did  for  the  better  explication  of 
those  fourteen  Articles  which  constitute 
what  may  be  called  the  disputed  posses- 
sions, as  contrasted  with  the  common  terri- 
tory of  English  and  Latin  Christianity. 

We  pass  from  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
of  the  Church  of  England  to  the  Thirty- 
eight  of  the  American  Episcopal  Church, 
since  it  is  with  these  latter  that  the  present 
paper  undertakes  more  particularly  to  deal. 
Three  questions  with  respect  to  the  Ameri- 
can Articles  force  themselves  upon  us  : — 
What  is  their  legal  status  ?  What,  under 
twentieth  century  conditions,  is  their  theo- 
logical value  ?  Why  should  they  continue 
any  longer  to  be  bound  up  with  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer?  Let  us  begin  with 
the  question  of  status. 

So  long  as  the  Colonial  Church  contin- 
ued under  the  nominal  oversight  of  the 
Bishop  of  London,  the  Articles,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  had  for  American  Churchmen 
precisely  the  same  binding  obligation  that 
they  had  for  English  Churchmen,  no 
more  no  less. 

Since    no    candidate    for    Holy   Orders 


10 

could  be  ordained  in  those  days  save  b}^  a 
Bishop  of  the  home  Church,  whom  he 
must  needs  cross  the  ocean  to  find,  every 
Church  of  England  clergyman  exercising 
his  office  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  must, 
at  some  time  or  other,  have  actuall}-  put 
his  name  to  the  Articles. 

During  the  period,  however,  that  inter- 
vened between  the  overthrow  of  the  British 
sovereignty  on  this  soil  and  the  firm  es- 
tablishment of  an  autonomous  Church  in 
what  the  Preface  to  the  Prayer  Book 
calls ''  these  American  States, "the  Articles 
were, to  all  intents  and  purposes,  in  mibibus. 
Nobody  seems  to  have  known  precisely 
where  they  stood,  or  what  was  the  exact 
measure  of  their  binding  force.  It  was 
evident  that  to  throw  them  overboard  alto- 
gether, especially  after  the  bold  step  taken 
in  the  practical  repudiation  of  the  Qtii- 
cunqiie  vult^  would  be  a  somewhat  violent 
break  of  doctrinal  continuity  with  the 
Church  of  England,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  formally  to  adopt  them  without  some 
measure  of  revision  was  impossible.  The 
twenty-first  of  the  Thirty-nine,  for  exam- 
ple, literall}^  reeked   with    the  flavour  of 


II 

monarchy,  asserting,  as  it  did,  that  General 
Conncils  might  "not  be  gathered  together 
without  the  commandment  and  will  of 
Princes."  To  have  sounded  that  note  in 
the  ears  of  "  these  American  States,"  in 
the  first  flush  of  their  democratic  pride, 
might  have  subjected  White  to  insult,  and 
Seabury  to  banishment.  In  the  Book  of 
Articles  appended  to  the  American  Prayer 
Book,  nothing  follows  the  title  "x\rticle 
XXI.  Of  the  Authority  of  General  Coun- 
cils" save  an  asterisk;  and  if  the  asterisk 
be  pursued  to  the  bottom  of  the  page,  we 
find  the  following  naive  footnote: — "  The 
Twenty-first  of  the  former  Articles  is 
omitted;  because  it  is  partly  of  a  local 
and  civil  nature  "  (as  if  there  were  any- 
thing really  "  local  "  or  "  civil  "  about  a 
General  Council),"  and  is  provided  for,  as 
to  the  remaining  parts  of  it,  in  other 
Articles."  A  happ}^  phrase  this — "pro- 
vided for  in  other  Articles  " ;  it  shall  be 
given  a  broader  application  presently. 
The  upshot  of  the  debate  over  the  recog- 
nition or  non-recognition  of  the  ^Articles 
was  their  "establishment,"  with  a  few 
modifications  (the  most  important  of  which 


12 

is  the  one  just  noted),  by  the  General 
Convention  of   1801. 

It  is  worth  while,  before  we  pass  this 
point,  to  quote  Bishop  White.  He  re- 
marks, in  his  Memoirs  (p.  33),  that  "the 
object  kept  in  view  in  all  the  consultations 
held  and  deliberations  formed  was  the  per- 
petuating of  the  Episcopal  Church  on  the 
ground  of  the  general  principles  which  she 
had  inherited  from  the  Church  of  England; 
and  of  not  departing  from  them,  except  so 
far  as  either  local  circumstances  required 
or  some  very  important  cause  rendered 
proper.  To  those  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  the  Church  of  England  it  must 
be  evident  that  the  object  here  stated  was 
accomplished  on  the  ratification  of  the 
Articles."  Tiffany,  in  his  History,  com- 
menting upon  this  memorandum,  suggest- 
ively adds  that  an  attempt,  three  years 
later,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  General  Con- 
vention of  1804,  to  make  subscription  to 
the  Articles  compulsory  upon  the  Clergy, 
by  canonical  enactment,  failed. 

The  just  conclusion  from  these  historical 
data  would  seem  to  be  that,  since  1801, 
the  Thirty-eight  Articles  of  Religion  have, 


13 

in  some  sense,  been  of  binding  force  upon 
the  consciences  of  onr  clergy,  thongh  in 
precisely  what  sense  or  to  what  extent  it  is 
not  easy  to  say.  Few  wonld  venture  to 
assert  that  they  stand  on  the  same  footing 
with  the  Catholic  Creeds  in  respect  to 
essential  dogma ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  few  would  go  so  far  as  to  declare 
them,  in  round  terms,  non- obligatory. 
They  would  appear  to  be  held,  to  use  a 
most  illusory  phrase,  forced  upon  us  by 
the  exigencies  of  these  difficult  times, ''for 
substance  of  doctrine,"  though  where  the 
*'  substance  "  ends  and  the  "  accidents  " 
begin,  who  shall  determine  ? 

And  just  here  would  seem  to  be  the 
proper  point  for  a  distinct  intimation  of  the 
present  writer's  motive  and  purpose  in 
opening  this  subject.  We  are  all  of  us 
more  or  less  disquieted  by  the  evident  dis- 
inclination of  the  flower  of  our  youth  to 
seek  the  ministry  of  religion  as  their  call- 
ing in  life.  Whether  or  not  the  same  ten- 
dency is  observable  in  communions  other 
than  our  own  is  a  separate  question.  But, 
without  going  further  afield  than  our  own 
immediate    ecclesiastical     limits    permit, 


14 

wli3'  is  it,  we  may  well  ask,  that  with  such 
magnificent  sources  of  suppl}'  as  our  great 
Schools,  Concord,  Grotou,  Southborough, 
Pomfret,  Cheshire,  Newport,  (not  to  men- 
tion others)  afford,  the  current  setting 
towards  Holy  Orders  should  be  so  slug- 
gish and  intermittent?  After  all  due 
allowance  has  been  made  for  the  fact  that 
many  of  these  bo3^s  have  been  brought  up 
at  home  in  such  luxurious  surroundings 
that  it  is  not  in  them  to  face  possible 
hardship,  it  still  remains  a  difficult  ques- 
tion, Why  do  the}^  not  in  larger  numbers 
flock  to  the  Colours?  It  is  the  writer's 
conviction  that  in  many  instances — by  no 
means  in  all,  but  in  mau}^ — the  reason  is 
that  no  clear-cut,  frank,  direct  answer  is 
to  be  had  to  the  question,  To  what  do  I 
commit  m3^self  doctrinally  if  I  enter  the 
ministry  of  the  Church? 

The  Lambeth  Platform,  to  be  sure,  has 
an  answer  to  this  question,  as  clear  as  a 
bell.  "  The  Nicene  Creed,"  it  declares, 
is  "  the  sufficient  statement  of  the  Chris- 
tian Faith." 

"  But  what  about  the  Articles  of  Re- 
ligion ? "    urges    the    level-headed,    keen- 


15 

eyed  young  college  graduate,  on  the  edge 
of  postulancy,  though  doubtful  al^out  can- 
didateship, — "  To  what  extent  am  I  bound 
by  them?  They  contain,  I  find,  many 
hundreds  of  propositions.  Must  I  feel  in 
my  heart  that  I  give  honest  assent  to  every 
one  of  these  when  I  am  asked  in  Ordi- 
nation whether  I  will  minister  the  doctrine 
of  Christ,  not  only  '  as  the  Lord  hath  com- 
manded,' which  would  be  a  comparatively 
simple  obligation,  but  '  as  this  Church 
hath  received  the  same '  ?  Tell  me,  O 
Bishop,  Guardian  of  the  fold  and  Shep- 
herd of  the  flock,  tell  me,  am  I  bound 
by  an  equally  strong  tie  to  the  affirmation 
that  '  works  before  justification  '  have  the 
nature  of  sin,  and  to  the  affirmation  'on 
the  third  day  He  rose  again  from  the 
dead  '  ?  "  To  which  the  Bishop,  as  things 
now  are,  can  but  reply,  ''You  have  Burnet 
and  Beveridge,  Browne,  Forbes  and  Hard- 
wicke ;  hear  them." 

The  Articles  of  Religion,  w^hen  anal3^sed 
and  classified,  fall  into  seven  groups — 
the  theological,  strictly  so  called,  the 
embryological,  the  anthropological,  the  so- 
teriological,  the  ecclesiological,  the  biblio- 


16 


logical,  and  the  sociological.  The  sections, 
moreover,  follow  in  the  order  named. 
Under  the  head  of  Theology,  pure  and 
simple,  come  the  first  five,  with  these 
titles,  '^Of  Faith  in  the  Holy  Trinity," 
'*Of  the  Word  or  Son  of  God  which  was 
made  Very  Man,"  ''Of  the  going  down  of 
Christ  into  Hell,"  "  Of  the  Resurrection 
of  Christ,"  "Of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Under  the  head  of  embryology  —  a 
word  which  may  be  used,  for  lack  of  a 
better,  to  define  the  study  of  sources — are 
to  be  classed  Articles  six,  seven,  and  eight, 
which  deal  with  the  germ-plots  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  and  the  Catholic 
Creed  in  its  two  forms  —  the  so-called 
Apostolic  and  the  Nicene.  Under  the 
head  of  Anthropology  come  Articles  nine 
and  ten,  dealing  respectively  with  Birth- 
sin  and  Free-will.  Soteriology  fills  no 
fewer  than  eight  Articles,  namely,  the 
eleventh,  Of  the  Justification  of  i\Ian  ;  the 
twelfth,  Of  Good  Works ;  the  thirteenth. 
Of  Works  before  Justification;  the  four- 
teenth, Of  Works  of  Supererogation  ;  the 
fifteenth,  Of    Christ  alone  Without  Sin; 


17 

the  sixteenth,  Of  Sin  after  Baptism ;  the 
seventeenth,  Of  Predestination  and  Elec- 
tion;  and  the  eighteenth,  Of  obtaining 
Eternal  Salvation  only  by  the  Name  of 
Christ.  All  these  in  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion, ''What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?  " — an 
inquiry  originally  replied  to,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, at  a  place  called  Philippi,  in 
fewer  words. 

Ecclesiology,  not  in  its  petty  sense  of 
the  science  of  priestly  vestments  and 
chancel  furniture,  but  in  its  dignified  and 
lofty  sense  of  the  science  of  the  Church's 
corporate  life,  is  dealt  with  in  fifteen  Ar- 
ticles, to  wit,  Nos.  nineteen  to  thirty-four, 
No.  twenty-one  of  "  the  former  Articles  " 
counting  zero.  In  these  ecclesiological 
Articles  we  have  the  Church's  constituency 
defined,  its  authority,  as  limited  by  Holy 
Scripture,  declared,  its  existence  in  a 
purgatorial  state  questioned,  its  ministry 
safeguarded,  the  language  of  its  w^orship 
confined  to  the  vernacular,  its  sacraments 
numbered,  explained,  and  protected  against 
both  misinterpretation  and  misuse,  the 
marriage  of  its  priests  justified,  its  sen- 
tences   of   excommunication   made  valid, 


18 

and  its  traditions  and  ceremonies  given 
such  subordinate  rank  as  rightfull}^  at- 
taches to  them.  The  bibliographical  Ar- 
ticles are  two  in  number,  and  deal  with 
the  Books  of  Homilies  and  the  Book  of 
Consecration  of  Bishops  and  Ordering  of 
Priests  and  Deacons. 

Finally,  under  the  head  Sociological 
may  be  classed  the  last  three  Articles,  one 
of  which  touches  upon  the  power  of  the 
civil  magistrates,  one  upon  communism, 
and  one  upon  the  lawfulness  of  making 
oath  in  courts  of  justice. 

The  Thirt3^-eight  Articles  having  been 
thus  summarised,  it  is  timel}^  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  x\merican 
Episcopal  Church  has  in  its  custody  three- 
and-twent}'  more,  nameh',  the  Twelve 
Articles  of  the  Catholic  Creed,  and  the 
Eleven  Articles  of  her  Constitution  or 
Organic  Law.  The  thesis  which  this 
Tract  No.  XCI.  has  been  written  to  set 
forth  and  to  maintain  is,  that  the  twent}-- 
three  amply  suffice  for  our  purpose  without 
the  thirty-eight.  Suppose  we  tr}^  the 
several  groups  just  enumerated  by  this  test. 

As  for  the  Trinitarian    theology,  with 


19 

which  the  Book  of  Articles  opens,  it  is 
evidently  identical,  in  fact  almost  verbally 
identical,  with  the  teachings  of  the  Nicene 
Creed.  So  much,  therefore,  may  be  set 
down  as  surplusage. 

The  open  Bible  on  our  lecterns  testifies 
to  our  respect  for  the  authority  of  the 
Book,  if  it  be  a  ''  Standard  "  Bible,  and  its 
table  of  contents  will  be  a  sufficient  defi- 
nition of  what  is  held  to  be  canonical 
Scripture. 

Similarly,  it  may  be  said  of  the  two 
Creeds  that  their  very  presence  in  our 
manual  of  worship  is  ample  enough  proof 
of  our  thinking  that  they  "  ought  thor- 
oughly to  be  received  and  believed."  This 
disposes  of  the  trilogy  of  Articles  con- 
cerned with  the  source  of  authority  in 
religion. 

On  Anthropology,  the  next  subject 
treated,  it  is  enough  to  know  that  man  is 
undoubtedly  a  sinner;  while,  of  Soteri- 
ology,  it  is  enough  to  know  that  Christ  is 
incontestably  a  Saviour.  Upon  both  of 
these  cardinal  points  the  Creed  insists, 
when  of  the  Only-begotten  of  the  Father 
it  affirms  that  "for  us  men   and  for  our 


20 

salvation "  He  came  down  from  heaven. 
Were  we  not  lost,  saving  we  slionld  not 
need;  were  He  not  Saviour,  his  coming 
down  had  been  in  vain. 

In  a  Church  which,  like  our  own,  has 
committed  its  organic  law  to  writing,  the 
proper  place  for  ecclesiological  teaching 
is  the  Constitution  ;  and  if  the  eleven 
Articles  of  that  document,  as  we  now  have 
it,  do  not  suffice,  it  would  be  quite  within 
the  power  of  our  ecclesiastical  legislature 
to  add  a  twelfth. 

Passing  to  bibliography,  it  is  certainly 
unnecessar}^  to  have  a  special  Article  of 
Religion  to  declare  that  our  Ordinal  has 
nothing  in  it  that,  "  of  itself,  is  supersti- 
tious and  ungodly."  The  fact  that  we 
continue  it  in  use  ought  to  be  suificient 
evidence  that  we  resent  such  imputation  ; 
while,  as  for  the  Homilies,  since  the  ver}^ 
Article  which  commends  them  also  sus- 
pends them, — postpones,  that  is  to  say, 
the  public  reading  of  them  in  churches 
until  they  shall  have  been  revised, — we 
need  not  trouble  ourselves  about  them. 
It  is  more  than  a  century  since  this  good 
resolution  was  put  into  print ;  and  though 


21 

there  have  been  revisions  many,  we  still 
wait  for  the  homiletical  one. 

There  remain  to  be  disposed  of  the  three 
Articles  designated  as  sociological.  Of 
these,  the  first,  ''  Of  the  Power  of  the  Civil 
Magistrates,"  is  a  very  different  thing 
under  its  American  form  from  what  we 
find  in  the  corresponding  place  in  the 
English  Book — in  fact,  may  not  unfairly 
be  said  to  teach  an  opposite  doctrine;  for 
whereas  the  English  Article  affirms  that 
godly  Princes  "  should  rule  all  estates  and 
degrees  committed  to  their  charge  by  God, 
w^hether  they  be  ecclesiastical  or  tem- 
poral," the  American  Article  quietly  ob- 
serves that ''  the  Power  of  the  Civil  Magis- 
trate hath  no  authority  in  things  purely 
spiritual  " — not  a  flat  contradiction,  per- 
haps, but  dangerously  near  to  it. 

The  second  of  the  Sociological  Articles 
antagonises  Communism  as  taught  by 
*' certain  Anabaptists."  But  anarchists, 
not  anabaptists,  are  the  men  with  whom 
we  have  to  do ;  and,  moreover,  if  we  are  to 
have  an  Article  of  Religion  to  confront 
each  and  every  one  of  the  economic  here- 
sies that  disturb  our  peace,  we  shall  need. 


22 

not  thirty-nine,  but  a  hundred.  The  Book 
concludes  with  the  Article  entitled  "  Of  a 
Christian  Man's  Oath."  It  confesses  tliat 
vain  and  rash  swearing  is  forbidden  Christ- 
ian men,  but  insists  that  in  a  good  craise 
a  Christian  man  may  swear  if  the  magis- 
trate requireth  it.  This  is  acceptable 
enough  doctrine  to  all  who  do  not  take 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  too  literally ; 
but,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  the  courts 
of  most  English-speaking  countries,  and 
even  in  the  House  of  Commons,  since 
Bradlaugh,  an  affirmation  is  accepted  in 
place  of  an  oath,  the  Article  has  that  be- 
lated look  which  befits  its  position  at  the 
end  of  the  column. 

This  Tract  has  been  written  in  no  acri- 
monious or  destructive  spirit.  The  writer 
has  no  wish  to  contravene  a  single  state- 
ment in  the  Articles  of  Religion.  He 
candidl}^  acknowledges  that  Christian  men 
ma}^  swear,  and  he  is  utterly  unwilling 
that  other  Christian  men  should  esteem 
his  goods  and  riches  common,  touching 
his  own  "right,  title,  and  possession  of  the 
same."  A  like  cheerful  assent  he  gives  to 
all  the  propositions  of  the  formulary,  as  he 


23 

understands  them  ;  for  it  would  be  strange 
indeed  if,  among  the  multitude  of  inter- 
pretations now  allowed,  he  should  fail  of 
finding  the  special  one  suited  to  the  idio- 
syncrasies of  his  particular  mind.  But 
while  this  is  his  present  attitude,  he  re- 
calls the  day  when  it  was  not.  He  recalls 
the  day  when,  to  his  youthful  and  un- 
tutored vision,  the  Articles  seemed  to  ob- 
scure rather  than  to  elucidate  the  answer 
to  the  question,  What  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  ?  He  cannot  help 
being  of  the  opinion  that  to-day  young 
men  in  great  numbers  are  similarly  em- 
barrassed. They  can  believe  the  Creeds, 
but  what  are  they  to  make  of  this  lengthy 
addendum  to  the  Creeds  ? 

It  may  be  urged  that  some  addendum 
is  necessary,  seeing  that  the  Creeds  do 
not  interpret  themselves.  There  is  truth 
in  this  objection,  but  has  the  bringer  of  it 
considered  what  an  immense  amount  of 
interpretative  power  is  stored  up  in  the 
historic  liturgy  of  the  Church?  The 
Creed,  for  example,  is  very  concise,  very 
concise  indeed,  in  the  region  of  anthro- 
pology and  soteriology;  but  the  Prayers 


24 

of  the  Ages,  in  a  singularly  full  and  satis- 
factory way,  show  us  how  Christians  have 
always  thought,  or,  what  is,  perhaps,  still 
more  to  the  point,  felt  upon  these  subjects. 

What  need  of  Article  twelve,  "Of  Good 
Works,"  when  we  have  learned,  on  the 
Second  Sunday  before  Lent,  to  say,  "  O 
Lord  God,  who  seest  that  we  put  not  our 
trust  in  anything  that  we  do,"  and  on  the 
Thirteenth  Sunday  after  Trinity  are  again 
to  pray,  ''  Almighty  and  merciful  God, 
of  whose  only  gift  it  cometh  that  thy 
people  do  unto  Thee  true  and  laudable 
service  "?  It  is  safe  to  sa}'  that  there  is 
not  a  single  Article  of  the  Creed  that  does 
not  find  similar  expansion  and  elucidation 
somewhere  between  the  covers  of  the 
Prayer  Book  before  you  reach  the  Psalter, 
and  long  before  you  reach  the  Articles. 

It  is  just  here  that  Anglicans  enjoy  a 
great  advantage  over  Presbyterians.  To- 
day the  Westminster  Confession  totters 
to  its  fall.  The  Brief  Statement  will  not 
save  it,  for  the  Brief  vStatement  was  only 
allowed  to  come  into  existence  upon  an 
understanding  that  for  "  substance  of 
doctrine  "  it  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  fair 


23 

exponent  of  the  longer  document.  Relief 
obtained  on  such  terms  can  be  but  tem- 
porary. Only  the  gnats  have  been  strained 
out,  the  camel  is  left  in  the  cup.  But  if  the 
Westminster  Confession  goes  to  pieces, 
what  have  our  Presbyterian  brethren  to 
fall  back  upon?  They  have  never  con- 
ceded to  the  Catholic  Creeds  that  high 
place  of  honour  in  which  Anglicans  have 
always  held  them.  If  Westminster  fails 
them,  they  have  no  Nicaea  to  fall  back 
upon.  It  looks  as  if  it  would  be  a  case,  as 
in  Paul's  shipwreck,  of  "  some  on  boards 
and  some  on  broken  pieces  of  the  ship." 
In  such  an  event,  may  a  good  Providence 
so  order  things  that,  as  happened  on  the 
coast  of  Malta,  they  shall  escape  all  safe 
to  land, — the  land  of  the  historic  faith,  no 
island  but  the  continent  of  truth.  Yes, 
the  Creeds  suffice.  They  have  outlived 
many  a  document  like  our  Book  of  Articles 
and  the  Confessions  of  Augsburg  and  of 
Westminster,  and  will  outlive  many  an- 
other. The  Confessions  have  their  day 
and  cease  to  be ;  the  Creeds  live  on — all 
the  days  are  theirs.  The  Creeds  are  like 
Stonehenge  and  the  Pyramids ; — to  go  at 


26 

tlicni  with  hammer  and  chisel,  under  a 
pretext  of  reparation,  were  little  short  of 
sacrilege.  The  Thirty-nine  Articles  are 
a  sixteenth  centur}^  Episcopal  residence 
of  many  rooms,  some  of  them  much  out 
of  repair. 

But  what  shall  we  do  with  our  Book  of 
Articles  if  we  snip  the  threads  which  now 
bind  it  up  with  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  ?  Put  it,  with  reverent  and  loving 
hands,  in  the  Archives,  I  reply  —  the 
Archives  of  English  Religion.  There 
are  other  books  to  keep  it  company  in 
that  honoured  and  dignified  retirement. 
There  is  The  InslitiUion  of  a  Christian 
Man;  there  is  King  Henry's  Primer ; 
there  is  NowelPs  Catechism ;  there  is 
Jewell's  Apology ;  there  are  those  unfor- 
tunate Books  of  Homilies,  still  unrevised  ; 
and  there  is,  if  you  please.  The  Confes- 
sion of  02tr  Christ ia7i  Faith ^  commonly 
called  the  Creed  of  St.  Athanasius. 

What  a  handsome  set  of  Archives  they 
would  make,  and  how  happily  the  Thirt}^- 
nine  Articles  would  fit  in  !  Bibliotheca 
Anglicana  we  will  call  it,  and  it  shall  have 
glass  doors  to  protect  the  honoured  pages 
from  an  otherwise  inevitable  dust. 


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